#keystoneroad

[railwayhistorical]

Intervallo: The Great Lakes Central, No Longer

Once again I will take a little break in the month-long series of posts on the Great Divide in New Mexico. Here we'll see a chase of a very short train on the Traverse City branch of the Great Lakes Central, now owned by Watco. (Heritage of the line is Pennsy/GR&I.)

These three images show that our diminutive train has made it to where River Road hits Beitner Road and Keystone, south of Traverse City. This may be the lightest rail I've ever seen on an active railroad.

Three images by Richard Koenig; taken May 21st 2026.

[railwayhistorical]

Hoppers, Part Two

Continuing an earlier post, the Great Lakes Central TC Turn is seen here after having dumped ballast on the Williamsburg District.

The train is along Keystone Road, south of Traverse City; it's making its way along the former GR&I branch toward Walton Junction.

Four images by Richard Koenig; taken August 24th 2021.

[railwayhistorical]

Traverse City Turn

Here's a series of post with Great Lakes Central's TC Turn. After hearing the train working in town, I was able to chase it south along the former Grand Rapids & Indiana, later the Pennsylvania.

The location here is south of town along Keystone Road. Three images by Richard Koenig; taken August 26th 2021. (1 of 6)

[railwayhistorical]

Traverse City Turn, Part Three of Five

The TC Turn is still alongside Keystone Road south of Traverse City; one can see the J. H. Rogers Observatory on the hill behind the train.

We now have our first glimpse of the interesting trailing unit: an EMD SD35. This was built for the Norfolk and Western (with high short hood) and was later owned by the Montana Rail Link and still sports its paint scheme.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken February 23rd 2021.